‘You all right, love?’ came a voice from near the fence.

I looked up to see an elderly woman with long white hair, sitting on a camping chair, knitting something complicated-looking. A hand-painted placard saying ‘I’M HERE BECAUSE I LOVE MY GRANDCHILDREN’ rested against the fence next to her. I was so relieved to hear a friendly voice that tears leaped into my eyes.

‘I’m fine,’ I said, my lip trembling. ‘It’s just that it’s so … big here. I thought it would be easy to find the person I know, but that was stupid of me. Have you seen any other people dressed as bears? There’s supposed to be some kind of teddy bears’ picnic but I have no idea where and now I’m worried I’ll never find them.’

She smiled, her eyes vanishing into a ruffle of crow’s feet. ‘Like them, do you mean?’

I turned and followed her gaze. Two women had just tramped past behind me, one dressed as Rupert the Bear, in a red jumper and yellow checked trousers with matching scarf, the other, a tall slim woman with long, wavy red hair tucked into the neck of a costume a bit like mine, only dark brown instead of my golden fake fur. Hers had a bear’s face hood, pushed down so that it rested on her shoulders, the bear’s upside-down eyes staring glassily skywards.

I thanked the knitting lady and dashed after them. ‘Excuse me! Excuse me!’

They turned. The red-haired woman was strikingly beautiful – huge green eyes, high cheekbones and Pippi Longstocking freckles scattered over the bridge of her nose as if they’d been drawn on. ‘Oh lookit! Another bear! And such a cute one,’ she exclaimed, in a broad American accent not dissimilar to Daisy Duke’s in The Dukes of Hazzard.

‘I’m so relieved!’ I gushed. ‘I thought I’d got it wrong. I was told there’d be bears, but I’ve been here ages and haven’t seen any…’

‘“I was told there’d be bears”,’ quoted the American woman solemnly. ‘I think I’ll have that as the title of my autobiography, if you don’t mind?’ She stuck out her hand and smiled, her face lighting up. ‘I’m Samantha. Pleased to meet you, little bear.’

I laughed too and shook it. ‘Meredith. Very pleased to meet you.’

The other woman, who looked less interested, gave me a fleeting smile and a nod. ‘I’m Sandrine.’ Now that I could see her face, I thought she actually looked like Rupert the Bear, with a plump-cheeked face and beady eyes.

Samantha’s approving eyes didn’t leave mine. In anyone else I’d have found it disconcerting, but I felt myself relax in her gaze, opening up like a flower. I wondered if she was gay. I’d never met a lesbian up close before.